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Original poster

Need help chosing a baby monitor?

11 replies

londonmum2 · 04/08/2004 16:51

Hi there,
Am new to this, so am hoping someone might be able to help!
Am due in two week (fingers crossed) and am still running around trying to get everything before the big day arrives and everything gets a tad (?!) hectic.
One of the things which I have heard really conflicting comments about, and am totally stuck on, are baby monitors. Do you all use them? Should I need one? Will it just make me sit by my monitor the whole time!? Any recommendations on product vs no product and product suggestions would be most welcome.
Thanking you all in advance!
Jo

OP posts:
Yorkiegirl · 04/08/2004 18:46

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Oooggs · 04/08/2004 20:23

I have the same one as Yorkie Girl and it has been great for us. We can hear DS when we are upstairs, but not if downstairs, even with telly off. It is also good if your are out in the garden due to also using batteries. Not too expensive either, bought ours in Toys R Us for £19.99.

lulupop · 04/08/2004 21:30

You will definitely need one if you live in anything bigger than a bedsit, as you always want to be able to hear little one, especially when they're really small. I had the Angelcare with DS, which I bought because I liked the idea of its movement sensor (goes off if baby stops breathing). In practice I never used this, as it is prone to go off all the time, which gives you a nervous breakdown every night, and in fact the monitor as a whole was annoying, because the lowest volume setting was still quite loud. If you're going to keep it next to you at night, you don't want to hear every little breath, only when baby really wakes up. I found the volume on the Angelcare really kept me awake. All that said, I know lots of other people have loved it.
With DD I have a Tomy Digital Walkabout, which is great. Nice and quiet, does exactly what it says on the box, and a lot cheaper than the Angelcare. I recommend it.

Ladykennedy · 04/08/2004 22:19

tomy classic walkabout another thumbs up here dd is now 2yrs 5months and there still going strong highly recomend them

Carameli · 05/08/2004 07:54

This reply has been deleted

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bunnyrabbit · 05/08/2004 13:04

Hi LM2,
There was thread recently on monitors here .

I standby my reccomendation on this for the Philipps.

It has both volume control like most monitors, but also has a sensitivity control, so if you want to hear any coughing nice and loud, but don't want to hear every snuffle, it's perfect. The parent unit is very small and rechargeable and the baby unit can run on batteries and has a night light. It also has a talk back function so you can talk to the baby unit from the parent unit.

BR

JanZ · 05/08/2004 13:31

Personally I never used one - on the basis that I would hear if the baby was crying enough and that I would only get paranoid if I were listening to all the baby snuffles. Babies' cries are DESIGNED to travel! - they penetrate your skull, let alone the walls! And I live in a solid, stone built Victorian house - so they definitely DO carry through them. (only once did I shut ALL the doors and go upstairs in an attempt to get away from the cries - having checked that I had done EVERYTHING I could to comfort him of course! !)

I was advised this by my "guru" - my best friend, who is a GP and a mother of 4. She only got a monitor with her 4th, who had some particular developmental problems which meant that they did need to be able to hear her.

What's amazing is that you DO learn to distinguish what type of cry your child is making - hunger, comfort, real distress etc.

But dh and I are pretty laid back parents, so no monitors worked for us. Ds was also a very good sleeper, almost from birth - and was in our room until he was 6 months old.

By the way, ds is now a happy, cheerful nearly 4 year old, who still sleeps through the night! We were lucky!

Portree · 05/08/2004 14:53

Started with a basic Tomy one but got loads of interference .... Tomy swapped it for another ... loads of interference. Then went for the top of the range one with temp monitor etc ... no interference but had to switch off the alert/alarm signal as room regularly over temp. Biggest waste of money ever. We never use it. I'm with JanZ on that one and ds has always been a good sleeper too. Stopped using it when I forgot to take it into the bathroom one day and managed to hear ds over the roaring power shower and a closed door. I don't want to hear every little sound, snuffle and cry as most times he can settle himself back to sleep. This is all just IMO.

StripyMouse · 05/08/2004 22:05

Like many, I wanted to hear my child as a way of knowing they were ok but in reality found that the very nature of monitors - exaggerating the natural sound, often distorting and crackly meant that a simple little roll over or cough sounded like she was being sick or had fallen out. Sure, it is better to be safe than sorry but found ourselves cursing when we rushed in a panic only to find a sleeping baby woken up thanks to the way we rushed upstairs in a flustered state.
You def. get what you pay for, as had already been said here, and if you want a monitor it is worth going for the best quality you can. We ended up buying an "I SEE U" wireless colour video monitoring system that is totally mobile and totally brilliant. A little bit pricey (from gadget shop) but worth every penny IMO. Complete with night time vision, I can now watch to see if the noise is my baby turning over peacefully in her cot or is standing up and needs dealing with before it develops into a roar and wakes my 3 year old. At same time I can see if it my 3 year old getting out of her bed needing the loo and so can go and help her. It is also brilliant to observe my eldest daughter play by herself, keeping a watchful eye while also able to give her the space to play independantly or even with her friends. I used to spend stressful coffee times chatting to a mum while DD1 played upstairs, straining to hear what was going on and that they were where I thought they were and not killing each other. Now I can relax and observe from the video screen - brilliant. Worth every penny. It is also handy to take out while I hang out washing and children are in front room or eldest wants to play in garden and youngest needs a bottle in the shade - i can set it up and watch from in doors for ten mins rather than keeping getting up or forcing eldest to come indoors every time I need to go inside etc. etc. loads of practical use and will be useful for quite a while -c an also record to video but haven?t done that yet. We give it 10/10.

bluebear · 05/08/2004 22:11

Philips Digital - it's great - no interference (we had loads on our old monitor) and the ability to change the sensitivity so you only hear the important noises (and every now and then you can turn it up to hear the cute little baby breaths..then turn it down again)
It's expensive but not as expensive as throwing cheaper monitors across the room because they are so irritating (no surprises on what happened to our old Tomy monitor )

Original poster
londonmum2 · 06/08/2004 11:38

excellent - thanks for all the useful advice!
my friend has just told me about a new baby & toddler monitor called Boardbug, but she doens't know much about it. Anyone here seen/heard of it?
Sounds potentially interesting....??

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